Evolution and religion / by A.J. Dadson.

  • Dadson, A. J. (Arthur J.)
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Evolution and religion / by A.J. Dadson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/376 page 4
    men so intellectually endowed as were the sages of Greece. The prevailing belief of the structure of the world was similar in regard to magnitude and character to that given by Moses. Man was surrounded by all sorts of invisible agencies, and supernatural wonders; and his chief object in life was to protect himself against their evil influence. A few miles above the earth was situated Olympus, the abode of the princi- pal god Zeus, who, surrounded by his inferior gods and their wives and mistresses, indulged in various acts of human crime and passion. The stars were supposed to be the light of heaven shining through the rents in the floor. The gods occasionally came down from their abodes and mixed with the daugh- ters of men, and kings and chiefs, in consequence, claimed celestial descent on the paternal side. This theological explanation of the Universe was held from time immemorial in great veneration by the inhabitants of the islands of the Mediterranean and the surrounding countries. And great was the wrath of the people, led by the theologians, against the philosophers of Greece, for daring to question the religion of their forefathers. Many were de- spoiled of their goods as a punishment, and others banished or put to death. Belief in such a system necessarily precluded all enquiry and progress among the people ; but the intellectual horizon was widening in all directions, when Aristotle appeared, 384 B.C. Before his time, Greek philosophy had been purely speculative. He was the first to practise the true method of scientific research by patient observation of the facts of Nature
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3